Page:Tristan and Iseult (Belloc 1914).djvu/115



FTER three days it happened that Tristan, in following a wounded deer far out into the wood, was caught by night-fall, and took to thinking thus under the dark wood alone:

"It was not fear that moved the King he had my sword and I slept  and had he wished to slay, why did he leave me his own blade?  O, my father, my father, I know you now. There was pardon in your heart, and tenderness and pity  yet how was that, for who could forgive in this matter without shame?  It was not pardon, it was understanding; the faggot and the chantry leap and the leper ambush have shown him God upon our side.